Gathering in-store employee ratings using triggered feedback solicitations

ABSTRACT

Embodiments are disclosed to detect whether an interaction has occurred between a customer and one or more store employees. By analyzing a how long a communication device used by the customer was within a threshold range of one or more devices worn by store employees, an interaction between the customer and one or more store employees may be identified. Employees whom the customer interacted with may be identified by processing transmission parameters broadcasted by the devices worn by the store employees. Thus, all employees in which a customer interacted with while visiting a store may be identified. The customer may be asked for feedback via the communication device upon detection that a customer has completed a transaction and/or left the store. Using the solicited feedback provided by the customer, various types of reports may be generated.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/545,356, filed Aug. 20, 2019; which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/717,506, filed Sep. 27, 2017; which is acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/456,713, filed Aug.11, 2014; each of which are incorporated herein by reference in theirentirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to gathering employee feedbackand, more particularly, to identifying store employees and solicitingemployee feedback once a customer has finished shopping.

BACKGROUND

In many cases, a customer may enter a store and interact with a numberof store employees to purchase an item. The customer may have a good orbad experience based on this interaction, whether the sought-after itemwas available for purchase, or other circumstances. This type ofinformation may provide valuable insight for store management to improvefuture customer experiences.

Many times, stores try to gather customer feedback by sending requeststo customers via email, which may have been provided by the customerwhen enrolling in a loyalty rewards program, signing up for purchasingincentives, etc. Additionally, stores may request customer feedback oncethe customer has made an online purchase, which may be requested upononline checkout or emailed to the customer after the purchase has beencompleted.

However, collecting feedback from customers in this way has severaldrawbacks. First, a customer may not be prompted for feedback if thecustomer has not purchased anything. In other words, because typicalfeedback systems rely on generating feedback when a customer purchasesan item, customers visiting a store but leaving dissatisfied after beingunable to make a purchase are never asked for feedback. Since customersleaving stores without purchasing an item are likely to be unsatisfiedwith their experience, not obtaining this feedback may potentially skewfeedback by excluding a large number of negative customer experiences,thereby giving many stores a false perception of customer satisfaction.

Second, when customers do purchase items and feedback is solicited, thecustomer may not remember details identifying the employees in which thecustomer interacted. Therefore, although feedback may be gathered frompurchasing customers, details that may be important to correct badcustomer experiences with particular employees and/or stores may neverbe determined.

As a result, gathering detailed feedback from customers based on theirshopping experience with particular store employees regardless ofwhether a customer makes a purchase in the store is important butpresents several challenges.

SUMMARY

In some embodiments, methods, apparatus, and non-transitory media aredescribed that detect a proximity of a first communication device toboth a store location and to a second communication device that may beworn by, affixed to, or otherwise associated with a store employee. Insuch embodiments, the first communication device may determine whetherthe customer has interacted with an employee based on the distance, orrange, between the first and second communication devices being lessthan a threshold range for greater than a threshold window of time. Insuch embodiments, information transmitted from the second communicationdevice may include a store employee identifier. The first communicationdevice may determine that a triggering event has occurred or the firstcommunication device may receive a trigger notification from an externaldevice upon the occurrence of one or more triggering events, such asleaving the store or purchasing an item. In response to determining orreceiving the triggering event, the external device may send anotification to the first communication device soliciting feedback fromthe customer, which may include a numerical rating system and/or allowthe customer to enter comments. The customer may then submit thefeedback and/or comments to the external device, which may also includedetails such as the employee identification numbers of store employeesthat the customer had interacted with while shopping, store identifyinginformation, a duration of each interaction between the customer andstore employee, etc.

In additional embodiments, methods, apparatus, and non-transitory mediaare described that aggregate and/or format the feedback data gatheredfrom the customer to provide varying types of reports for differentlevels of store management. In such embodiments, the feedback data foreach employee may be sent directly to each store employee, providing theemployees with a direct and unbiased feedback from those customers thestore employees have interacted in the past day, week, month, etc.Furthermore, embodiments include the averaging feedback data scores forall store employees within a particular store, region, chain, etc. toprovide feedback to the appropriate levels of managements.

In additional embodiments, methods, apparatus, and non-transitory mediaare described that utilize the feedback data in conjunction with a bonussystem, thereby providing employees automated spot bonuses when averagefeedback ratings exceed a threshold rating over a particular period oftime.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The figures described below depict various aspects of the system andmethods disclosed herein. It should be understood that each figuredepicts an embodiment of a particular aspect of the disclosed system andmethods, and that each of the figures is intended to accord with apossible embodiment thereof. Further, whenever possible, the followingdescription refers to the reference numerals included in the followingfigures, in which features depicted in multiple figures are designatedwith consistent reference numerals.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary feedback solicitation system100 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary communication device 200configured to run a feedback application, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 3 illustrates a graphical representation 300 of various interactionscenarios between a customer and a store employee, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 4A illustrates an exemplary communication device screen 400,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 4B illustrates an image of an exemplary communication deviceapplication screen, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 4C illustrates an exemplary communication device screen 450,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 4D illustrates an image of an exemplary communication deviceapplication screen, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary report 500, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary report 600, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary report 700, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary report 800, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 9 illustrates a method flow 900, according to an embodiment; and

FIG. 10 illustrates a method flow 1000, according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following text sets forth a detailed description of numerousdifferent embodiments. However, it should be understood that thedetailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does notdescribe every possible embodiment since describing every possibleembodiment would be impractical. One of ordinary skill in the art willrecognize, in light of the teaching and disclosure herein, that numerousalternative embodiments could be implemented.

It should be understood that, unless a term is expressly defined in thispatent application using the sentence “As used herein, the term‘_(——————)’ is hereby defined to mean . . . ” or a similar sentence,there is no intent to limit the meaning of that term, either expresslyor by implication, beyond its plain or ordinary meaning, and such termshould not be interpreted to be limited in scope based on any statementmade in any section of this patent application.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary feedback solicitation system100 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Feedbacksolicitation system 100 includes ‘N’ number of employees 102.1-102.Nassociated with N number of respective communication devices103.1-101.N, a communication device 104, which may be operated by a user105, such as a customer, for example, a base station 106, a network 108,an external device 112, and a store checkout system 114, which may beoperated by a user 116, such as a store cashier, for example.

Communication devices 103.1-103.N may be configured to store anysuitable number of parameters, such as unique identifiers, locationidentifiers, employee identifiers, and/or store identifiers, forexample, and to broadcast these parameters as part of each communicationdevice 103's respective transmission. In various embodiments,communication devices 103.1-103.N may be configured to broadcasttransmissions in accordance with any suitable recurring schedule, suchas once per every 10 seconds, once per 30 seconds, etc. In variousembodiments, communication devices 103.1-103.N may be implemented as awireless communication device worn by the employee, such as a watch,bracelet, badge, etc. In an embodiment, one or more of communicationdevices 103.1-103.N may be integrated with an employee badge that isworn by the respective store employee 102 and may include the employee'sname, title, or other information. In this way, communication devices103.1-103.N may be worn as part of the employee's ordinary work attire.

In various embodiments, the parameters may be stored in any suitablememory device utilized by the respective communication device 103, suchas a flash-based memory, a battery-backed RAM, etc. In some embodiments,communication devices 103.1-103.N are configured to broadcast beacons inaccordance with one or more communication protocols and/or standards,such as IEEE Standards, for example.

In some embodiments, communication devices 103.1-103.N may be configuredto transmit their respective parameters in accordance with acommunication protocol, such as radio frequency identification (RFID)and/or a near field communication (NFC) protocol. To provide anotherexample, communication devices 103.1-103.N may be configured to transmittheir respective parameters in accordance with a Wi-Fi communicationprotocol. Wi-Fi protocols could include ad-hoc communications, such asWi-Fi direct, for example, such that direct communications isfacilitated between communication devices 103.1-103.N and communicationdevice 104. As will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in therelevant art(s), communication devices 103.1-103.N may be implementedwith any suitable number of power sources, wireless transmitters,receivers, and/or transceivers, processors, memories, etc., tofacilitate this functionality.

In accordance with such an embodiment, each beacon broadcasted by arespective communication device 103 may include a respective universallyunique identifier (UUID). In some embodiments, communication devices103.1-103.N may be implemented as iBeacons, which have been developed byApple, Inc. In accordance with such an embodiment, communication devices103.1-103.N may be configured to transmit their respective UUIDs inaccordance with one or more standards utilized by iBeacon devices. Forexample, communication devices 103.1-103.N may transmit their respectiveUUIDs in accordance with a BLUETOOTH Low Energy (BLE) protocol, whichimplements the BLUETOOTH 4.0 specification at the time of this writing.

In some embodiments, communication devices 103.1-103.N may be configuredto operate in an advertising mode in which communication devices103.1-103.N only transmit their respective beacons and do not otherwisereceive communications. In other embodiments, communication devices103.1-103.N may be configured to transmit their respective beacons andto receive communications from other communication devices, such ascommunication device 104, for example. Embodiments in whichcommunication devices 103.1-103.N only transmit their respective beaconscould be particularly useful when they are implemented as devices thatutilize a battery power source, as such a configuration advantageouslyreduces power consumption.

In some embodiments, the transmitted parameters may also include anysuitable type of identifier. For example, a portion of the transmittedparameters could correspond to a particular store location and be commonamong all communication devices 103.1-103.N positioned within a singlestore, while another portion of the transmitted parameters may functionto uniquely identify each communication device 103. Because eachemployee is assigned her own communication device 103, in variousembodiments an employee may be identified either via a correlation ofthe identified communication device 103 to the employee assigned to thatdevice, or simply by receiving the employee ID from the communicationdevice 103 that was transmitted as part of the beacon parameters.

In various embodiments, the transmitted parameters may also include datarepresentative of calibrated receive power information. For example,iBeacons broadcast a power value that is a calibrated received signalstrength indicator (RSSI) measured 1 meter from the communication deviceby another communication device. By broadcasting this calibrated receivepower value, another device (e.g., communication device 104) can comparethe RSSI of a received beacon transmission to the calibrated value anduse this ratio to estimate its proximity to the communication device 103transmitting the beacon.

Communication device 104 may be configured to communicate with one ormore of communication devices 103.1-103.N and to receive parameterstransmitted from one or more of communication devices 103.1-103.N.Communication device 104 may be configured to communicate with network108 via base station 106. As will be appreciated by those of ordinaryskill in the relevant art(s), communication device 104 may beimplemented with any suitable number of power sources, wirelesstransmitters, receivers and/or transceivers, processors, memories, etc.,to facilitate this functionality. In an embodiment, communication device104 is implemented as a user equipment (UE), such as a smartphone, forexample. Although communication device 104 is illustrated in FIG. 1 as aphone, communication device 104 may be implemented as any suitablecommunication device configured to communicate with communicationdevices 103.1-103.N and network 108. For example, communication device104 may be implemented as a smartphone, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a tablet computer, a laptop computer, etc. Communication device104 may be configured to communicate with base station 106 via anysuitable communications protocol to access network 108, such as cellularor Wi-Fi protocols, for example.

In various embodiments, communication device 104 may be configured todetect its proximity to a store in which employees 102.1-102.N work.Based on this proximity, embodiments include communication device 104performing one or more context-based actions. For example, communicationdevice 104 may be configured to receive location beacons transmitted byother suitable communication devices located within the same store inwhich employees 102.1-102.N are working in addition to communicationdevices 103.1-103.N.

Although communication devices in addition to communication devices103.1-103.N are not shown in FIG. 1 for purposes of brevity,communication device 104 may utilize communications with such additionalcommunication devices located in the store to determine its proximity toa particular store. These other communication devices may be additionalbeacon devices, for example, which are utilized for this purpose. Invarious embodiments, communication 104 may detect its proximity within astore utilizing any techniques described in commonly assigned andco-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 14/249,492, which was filed on Apr.10, 2014, and is fully incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

To provide another example of location determination, communicationdevice 104 may implement any suitable number of global navigationsatellite system (GNSS) and/or other suitable types of receivers toobtain its geographic location. Communication device 104 may beconfigured to determine its respective position via networktriangulation, global positioning system (GPS) location techniques,assisted-GPS (A-GPS) techniques, etc. In accordance with variousembodiments, communication device 104 may determine its proximity to astore based on a comparison of this geographic location to a geofencedarea that is associated with the store location.

The proximity of communication device 104 to a particular store locationmay act as a trigger to launch one or more background applications as acontext-based action. Once the one or more background applications arerunning, communication device 104 may automatically listen for incomingbeacons transmitted by devices 103.1-103.N without any userintervention. For example, a user may have communication device 104 inhis pocket and walk into a store in which employees 102.1-102.N areworking. Without any user intervention, communication device 104 maydetermine that it is proximate to the store using any of theaforementioned techniques and start a background application thatlistens for beacons that may be broadcasted by communication devices103.1-103.N.

Once a background application has been launched on communication device104, in various embodiments, communication device 104 may determinewhether the customer has “interacted” with one or more of storeemployees 102.1-102.N. In various embodiments, communication device 104may be configured to determine whether an interaction occurred based onwhether communication device 104 was within a threshold range of one ofcommunication devices 103.1-13.N for a threshold time period.

For example, communication device 104 may utilize calibrated receivepower information received from any of communication devices 103.1-103.Nwhen communication device 104 comes within receiving range of one ormore of communication devices 103.1-103.N. Communication device 104 maycompare the RSSI of the received beacon measured at communication device104 to the calibrated value and use this ratio to estimate the distancebetween communication device 104 and one or more of communicationdevices 103.1-103.N based on known path-loss signal transmission models.

To provide another example, communication device 104 may utilize adetection range, such as a maximum range in which another communicationsdevice may be detected, for example, to determine an interaction betweenthe customer and employee. Embodiments of detection range applicationsmay be particularly useful, for example, when communication device 104implements near field communications to detect its proximity to one ormore of communication devices 103.1-103.N. In other words, becausemaximum NFC ranges are typically about 20 cm, embodiments could includecommunication device 104 determining that a customer has interacted witha store employee when an NFC compatible communication device 103.1-103.Nis simply detected in accordance with suitable NFC communicationprotocols, which would signify that communication device 104 and one ormore of communication devices 103.1-103.N are within at least thistypical maximum NFC range of one another.

In various embodiments, communication device 104 may log a record ofeach interaction between communication devices 103.1-103.N, and thus theinteractions between the customer and any of store employees102.1-102.N. Additionally or alternatively, various embodiments includecommunication device 104 also logging other suitable detailscorresponding to employee-customer interactions, such as a timestamp foreach interaction, a duration of each interaction, a duration of thetotal time communication device 104 was within a minimum range (e.g., onthe threshold of detection) of a communication device 103, storeidentification information, etc.

While customer 105 continues to shop and have various interactions withstore employees 102.1-102.N, communication device 104 may continue torecord the details associated with each interaction. Once the customerhas finished shopping, one or more trigger conditions may result in anotification being pushed to communication device 104 to solicitfeedback from customer 105. Additionally or alternatively, communicationdevice 104 may generate the notification to solicit feedback fromcustomer 105. The one or more trigger conditions may be a result ofcustomer 105 exiting the store and/or completing a transaction.

For example, communication device 104 may determine its location andsend this information to external computing device 112 via base station106 and network 108. External computing device 112, in turn, maydetermine that communication device 104 has left the vicinity of aparticular store using this location information. In variousembodiments, external computing device 112 may determine that customer105 has left the store by referencing location information received fromcommunication device 104 to geofencing data associated with a perimeterof a particular store.

To provide another example, external computing device 112 may determinethat communication device 104 has left the vicinity of a store based onlocation beacon data received by communication device 104 from anothercommunication device (not shown in FIG. 1) and reported to externalcomputing device 112 from communication device 104, as further describedin application Ser. No. 14/249,492, for example. By pushing a feedbacknotification to communication device 104 based on its location, customer105 may be given the opportunity to provide feedback regardless ofwhether customer 105 purchased an item.

To provide yet another example, a push notification may be sent tocommunication device 104 as result of customer 105 completing atransaction at checkout system 114. In some embodiments, checkout system114 may be configured to send notifications to external computing device112 when items are purchased by customers participating in a rewardsprogram, or who are otherwise identifiable upon checkout. Once customer105 provides this information, which is typically presented and scannedby the cashier 116 in the form of a barcode, checkout system 114 maysend data identifying customer 105 to external computing device 112. Ifcustomer 105 provided a cell number when enrolling in a loyalty rewardsprogram or other suitable program and gave consent to receive pushnotifications from the retailer, then external computing device 112 maypush a notification soliciting feedback from customer 105 upon customer105 scanning such information at checkout system 114.

In other embodiments, communication device 104 may generate the feedbacknotification to solicit feedback from customer 105 without receiving apush notification. For example, a rewards card or other applicablecustomer participation program may identify customer 105 as a displayedbarcode, QR code, etc., on a suitable display portion of communicationdevice 104. Additionally, communication device 104 may implement afront-facing camera, i.e., a camera on the same side of communicationdevice 104 as the portion displaying the rewards barcode. In such ascenario, embodiments include detecting a laser barcode scan of thedisplayed barcode using the camera integrated into communication device104. For example, rapid changes in the red value in the RGB spectrum mayindicate the presence of a laser scanning device. In variousembodiments, communication device 104 may display the feedbacknotification to customer 105 shortly after the barcode scanner isdetected, such as 30 seconds later, a minute later, etc.

Base station 106 is configured to facilitate communications betweencommunication device 104 and network 108. Although base station 106 isillustrated in FIG. 1 as wirelessly communicating with network 108,embodiments include communication device 104 providing communications tonetwork 108 via any suitable number of wired and/or wireless links. Forexample, base station 106 may be coupled to network 108 via one or morelandline, internet service provider (ISP) backbone connections,satellite links, a public switched telephone network (PSTN), etc. Invarious embodiments, base station 106 can be implemented as an accesspoint (AP), a macrocell, a femtocell, etc.

Network 108 may include any suitable number of nodes, additional wiredand/or wireless networks, etc., in various embodiments. For example, inan embodiment, network 108 may be implemented as a local area network(LAN) or a suitable combination of local and/or external networkconnections. In various embodiments, network 108 may providecommunication device 104 with connectivity to network services, such asInternet services and/or access to external computing device 112.Although one external computing device 112 is shown in FIG. 1, network108 may include connections to any suitable number of remote devices,servers, nodes, terminals, etc.

In an embodiment, external computing device 112 may be configured tocommunicate with communication device 104 via network 108 and basestation 106. In an embodiment, external computing device may beconfigured to communication with checkout system 114 via any suitablenumber of wired and/or wireless links. In various embodiments, externalcomputing device 112 may be implemented as a web server, a cloud server,etc. External computing device 112 may be configured to perform anysuitable portion of processing operations otherwise performed bycommunications device 104. External computing device 112 may include anysuitable number of processors, memories, databases, etc., to facilitatethis functionality.

In an embodiment, external computing device 112 may be configured toreceive data from communication device 104 and/or checkout system 114 todetermine an occurrence of trigger conditions. External computing device112 may be configured to generate notifications and send thesenotifications to communication device 104 in response to determiningthat a trigger condition has occurred and/or receiving such anindication from another device, such as via checkout system 114, forexample. In accordance with an embodiment, external computing device 112may be configured to generate and to send push notifications via network108 to communication device 104. As previously discussed with referenceto the one or more links between base station 106 and network 108,communications between external computing device 112 and network 108 maybe implemented with any suitable number of wired and/or wireless links.

External computing device 112 may be configured to store and/or accessinformation from one or more databases, which are not shown in FIG. 1for purposes of brevity. The information stored and/or accessed byexternal computing device 112 may include, for example, customerinformation, reward program or other suitable program information, storeinformation, store employee information, store location information, orany other suitable relevant information used to determine triggerconditions as described in the embodiments presented herein. In variousembodiments, the one or more databases may be integrated as a part ofexternal computing device 112 or separate from external computing device112.

Once a trigger condition is determined by external computing device 112and a notification is pushed to communication device 104, customer 105may enter feedback as indicated on an appropriate display portion ofcommunication device 104. As will be further discussed below, thefeedback may include a numerical rating and/or comments entered bycustomer 105. Once customer 105 enters the feedback, the feedback data,which may include a rating and/or comments entered by customer 105, aswell as any logged data, which may include store information, employeeinteraction information, timestamps associated with each interaction,etc., are sent from communication device 104 to external computingdevice 112.

In various embodiments, external computing device 112 may generate aseries of reports using the data received from communication device 104,which may include the feedback data and any additional logged dataregarding the interactions between customer 105 and one or more of storeemployees 102.1-1021.N. As will be further discussed below, thesereports may be targeted to various levels of store management. Forexample, external computing device 112 may send reports to each storeemployee 103.1-103.N, which may include each employees average rating orscore for a given time period. As external computing device 112 may bemade available to the various levels of management, store employeefeedback may be used for a variety of purposes, such as reviews,disciplinary action, spot bonuses, etc.

Checkout system 114 may be configured to communicate with externalcomputing device 112. Although FIG. 1 illustrates checkout system 114 ashaving a direct connection to external computing device 112, variousembodiments include checkout system 114 being connected to externalcomputing device 112 via network 108. Checkout system 114 may functionas a point of sale (POS) within the store, and therefore may beconfigured to identify items to be purchased by customer 105 and processpayments.

As previously discussed, checkout system 114 may send rewards programinformation scanned for customer 105 to external computing device 112.In various embodiments, checkout system 114 may access externalcomputing device 112, databases integrated as a part of checkout system114, and/or databases separate from checkout system 114, to determinepricing information, customer rewards point status, available discounts,run reports, determine store inventory and corresponding locations, etc.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary communication device 200configured to run a feedback application, according to an embodiment.For ease of explanation, communication device 200 will be described withreference to communication device 104 of FIG. 1. However, communicationdevice 200 may be implemented as a communications device other thancommunication device 104 and/or as part of a system other than exemplaryfeedback generation system 100.

Communication device 200 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 202, agraphics processing unit (GPU) 204, a memory 206, a user interface 210,a display 212, a communication unit 214, and a camera unit 216. In anembodiment, communication device 200 is implemented as a user equipment(UE), such as a mobile computing device, a smartphone, a laptopcomputer, tablet computer, desktop computer, or any other suitable typeof computing device.

Communication unit 214 may be configured to facilitate datacommunications between communication device 200 and one or more otherdevices, such as one or more of communication devices 103.1-103.N and/orexternal computing device 112, as shown in FIG. 1, for example. In anembodiment, communication unit 214 may be configured to receive data,such as transmission parameters and/or other identifying information,for example, from one or more communications devices, such ascommunication devices 103.1-103.N, for example, as shown in FIG. 1. Inan embodiment, communication device 200 may be configured to send data,including location data and/or customer information, for example, toanother device, such as external computing device 112, for example, asshown in FIG. 1.

As will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the relevantart(s), communication unit 214 may be implemented with any combinationof suitable hardware and/or software to enable these functions. Forexample, communication unit 214 may be implemented with any number ofwired and/or wireless transceivers, antennas, network interfaces,physical layers (PHY), etc. In embodiments in which communication device200 is a mobile computing device, communication unit 214 optionallyenables communications between communication device 200 and one or morenetworks, such as network 108, for example, as shown in FIG. 1.

In various embodiments, communication unit 214 is configured to measurethe strength of signals and to provide these measurements to CPU 202.For example, in embodiments in which communication device 200 isimplemented as a mobile computing device, communication unit 214 may beconfigured to measure the strength of signals received from othercommunication devices, such as communication devices 103.1-103.N, forexample, as shown in FIG. 1. In this way, communication unit 214 mayprovide CPU 202 a way of determining a distance, or range, betweencommunication device 200 and one or more of communication devices103.1-103.N based on the strength of received beacon transmissionsbroadcasted by communication devices 103.1-103.N. Alternatively oradditionally, communication unit 214 may be configured to measure thestrengths of signals received from one or more base stations, such asbase station 106, for example, as shown in FIG. 1.

In various embodiments, communication unit 214 is configured todetermine whether communication device 200 is within range of one ormore communications devices, such as communication devices 103.1-103.N,for example, as shown in FIG. 1. For example, in embodiments in whichcommunication device 200 is implemented as a mobile computing devicewith NFC communications, communication unit 214 may be configured todetect the presence of one or more NFC compatible communication devices103.1-103.N when one or more of communication devices 103.1-103.N iswithin NFC range of communication device 200. In this way, communicationunit 214 may provide CPU 202 a way to determine whether communicationdevice 200 and one or more of communication devices 103.1-103.N are atleast within NFC detection range of one another.

User interface 210 may be configured to allow a user to interact withcommunication device 200. For example, user interface 210 may include auser-input device such as an interactive portion of display 212 (e.g., a“soft” keyboard displayed on display 212), an external hardware keyboardconfigured to communicate with communication device 200 via a wired or awireless connection (e.g., a Bluetooth keyboard), an external mouse,and/or any other suitable user-input device.

CPU 202 and/or GPU 204 may be configured to communicate with memory 206to store to and read data from memory 206. In accordance with variousembodiments, memory 206 is a computer-readable non-transitory storagedevice that may include any combination of volatile (e.g., a randomaccess memory (RAM), or a non-volatile memory (e.g., battery-backed RAM,FLASH, etc.). Memory 206 may be configured to store instructionsexecutable on CPU 202 and/or GPU 204. These instructions may includemachine readable instructions that, when executed by CPU 204 and/or GPU204, cause CPU 202 and/or GPU 204 to perform various acts. Memory 206may be configured to store other information, for example, such as storelocations, store numbers, a list of UUIDs and their correspondingemployee identifiers, customer loyalty program information, customercontact information, etc.

In various embodiments, CPU 202 and/or GPU 204 may be configured todetermine a current time from a real-time clock circuit and/or byreceiving a network time via communication unit 214 (e.g., via basestation 106). Furthermore, various embodiments include CPU 202 and/orGPU 204 maintaining a running clock and/or a timer. Various embodimentsinclude CPU 202 and/or GPU 204 referencing and/or logging interactionsbetween communication device 104 and one or more of communicationdevices 103.1-103.N by referencing this running clock and/or timer.

Feedback application module 208 is a portion of memory 206 configured tostore instructions, that when executed by CPU 202 and/or GPU 204, causeCPU 202 and/or GPU 204 to perform various acts in accordance with afeedback application. For example, in various embodiments, instructionsstored in feedback application module 208 may facilitate CPU 204 and/orGPU 204 determining employee-customer interactions, logging anyinteractions, determining the occurrence of one or more conditions thatmay trigger a feedback prompt being displayed to the customer,displaying one or more feedback prompts, collecting customer feedback,and/or sending the feedback and any other suitable logged information toanother device as specified by the particular feedback applicationand/or program. As will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in therelevant art(s), CPU 202 and/or GPU 204 may access instructions storedin feedback application module 208 to implement any suitable number ofroutines, algorithms, applications, programs, etc., to facilitate thefunctionality as described herein with respect to the applicableembodiments.

For example, instructions stored in feedback application module 208 mayenable CPU 202, in conjunction with communication device 214, todetermine whether a customer has entered the vicinity of a particularstore by referencing a current location of communication device 200 withgeofencing data stored in memory 206. Upon this determination,instructions stored in feedback application module 208 may enable CPU202 to execute instructions stored in feedback application module 208and to launch an application as a background process that is transparentto the user. Once this background process is running, instructionsstored in feedback application module 208 may enable CPU 202 todetermine whether interactions have occurred between communicationdevice 200 and one or more communication devices that are broadcastingtransmission parameters, such as one or more of communication devices103.1-103.N, for example, as shown in FIG. 1. In accordance with such anembodiment, instructions stored in feedback application module 208 mayfurther enable CPU 202 to store data in memory 206 regarding details ofthe interactions, such as interaction durations, ranges, employeeidentification numbers, timestamps, etc.

Furthermore, instructions stored in feedback application module 208 mayfacilitate the CPU 202 to recognize the occurrence of one or moretrigger conditions, detection of which resulting in CPU 204 and/or GPU204 causing display 212 to display a feedback prompt for the customer tocomplete. As previously discussed with reference to FIG. 1, thesetrigger conditions may be generated by communication device 200 (e.g.,via communications between CPU and camera unit 216) or received as anotification (e.g., a push notification) from an external device orserver (e.g., external computing device 112) via communications receivedvia communications unit 214. Additionally, instructions stored infeedback application module 208 may facilitate CPU 202 working inconjunction with communication unit 214 to send data to an externalcomputing device, such as external computing device 112, for example, asshown in FIG. 1. The data may include, for example, feedback datareceived from customer 105 via user interface 210 and/or any logged datafrom one or more identified interactions, such as the duration ofinteractions, etc.

In various embodiments, the information and/or instructions stored infeedback application module 208 may be setup upon the initialinstallation of a corresponding application. In some embodiments, thefeedback application may be installed in addition to an operating systemimplemented by communication device 200. For example, a user maydownload and install the feedback application from an application storevia communication unit 214 in conjunction with user interface 210.Application stores could include, for example, Apple Inc.'s App Store,Google Inc.'s Google Play, Microsoft Inc.'s Windows Phone Store, etc.,depending on the applicable operating system implemented bycommunication device 200.

In various embodiments, the information and/or instructions stored infeedback application module 208 may be integrated as a part of theoperating system implemented by communication device 200. For example, auser could setup the feedback application via an initial setup procedureupon initialization of the communication device, as part of setting up anew user account on the communication device, etc.

Camera unit 216 may be configured to capture pictures and/or videos.Camera unit 216 may be operated by a user in conjunction with userinterface 210 and/or display 212. As will be appreciated by those ofordinary skill in the relevant art(s), camera unit 216 may include anysuitable combination of hardware and/or software such as image sensors,optical stabilizers, charge-coupled devices (CCDs), etc., to facilitatethis functionality. In an embodiment, camera unit 216 may be configuredto detect rapid changes in the red value of one or more integrated imagesensors, such that scanning of a barcode displayed on display 212 may bedetected, as previously discussed with reference to FIG. 1.

Although each of the components in FIG. 2 are illustrated as separateunits or modules, those of ordinary skill in the relevant art(s) willappreciate that any components integrated as part of communication unit200 shown in FIG. 2 may be combined and/or share functionalities. Forexample, CPU 202, GPU 204, and memory 206 may be integrated as a singlechip processing unit. Furthermore, although connections are not shownbetween the individual components of communication unit 200, those ofordinary skill in the relevant art(s) will appreciate that communicationunit 200 may implement any suitable number of wired and/or wirelesslinks to facilitate communication and interoperability between thesecomponents. For example, memory 206, communication unit 214, display212, and/or camera 216 may be coupled via wired buses and/or wirelesslinks to CPU 202, GPU 204, and/or memory 206 to facilitatecommunications between these components and to enable these componentsto accomplish the functions associated with the embodiments as describedthroughout the present disclosure. Furthermore, although FIG. 2illustrates a single memory 206, those of ordinary skill in the relevantart(s) will appreciate that communication device 200 may implement anysuitable number and/or combination of memory systems.

FIG. 3 illustrates a graph 300 of various interaction scenarios betweena customer and a store employee, according to an embodiment. In variousembodiments, a communication device, such as communication device 104 orcommunication device 200, for example, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2,respectively, may be configured to determine whether an interaction hasoccurred between a customer and one or more store employees. Althoughboth communication device 104 and communication device 200 (which couldbe embodiments of the same device) may be configured to perform thisfunctionality, the following discussion uses communication device 104 asa reference for brevity.

As previously discussed with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, communicationunit 104 may be configured to determine a range between itself andanother communication unit worn by or otherwise associated with a storeemployee, such as communication units 103.1-103.N, for example, as shownin FIG. 1. As will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in therelevant art(s), various techniques may be utilized by communicationdevice 104 to determine this range. For example, communication device104 may estimate the range from an RSSI value calculated for a receivedbeacon signal transmitted by communication device 103. As previouslydiscussed with reference to FIG. 1, the iBeacon standard may transmitbeacons including information regarding calibrated receive powermeasurements, which may be used by communication device 104 to calculatea range, or distance, between itself and a particular communicationdevice 103.

Furthermore, communication device 104 may maintain a count, or timedduration, compared to the current calculated range values. Graph 300shows three scenarios of potential interactions between a customer 105and a store employee 102 based on the assumption that the store employeeand the customer are both wearing or otherwise associated with theirrespective communication devices 104 and 103.

In some embodiments, the determination of whether interactions haveoccurred between the customer and any store employees may be determinedby communication device 104. These embodiments may be particularlyuseful when it is desirable to send less data from communication device104 to external computing device 112, as these embodiments may includeonly sending data corresponding to identified interactions.

In other embodiments, the determination of whether interactions haveoccurred between the customer and any store employees may be determinedby external computing device 112. These embodiments may be particularlyuseful when, for example, it may be desirable to offload processing fromcommunication device 104 at the expense of increased data transmissions.

Regardless of whether communication device 104 or external computingdevice 112 determines whether interactions have occurred between thecustomer and the store employee, these determinations may be made basedon a combination of a minimum range threshold and a minimum timethreshold window, as shown in FIG. 3. In various embodiments, theminimum range threshold and/or the minimum time threshold window may bepredetermined or modified based on various considerations. For example,in some embodiments, the minimum range threshold and/or the minimum timethreshold may be set to the same values across several marketingregions, whereas in other embodiments it may be preferable to usedifferent minimum range thresholds and/or minimum time threshold windowsfor different marketing regions. Typical values for the minimumthreshold range may be 20 or 30 feet, for example, while typical valuesfor the minimum time threshold window may be 5 or 10 seconds, forexample. As will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in therelevant art(s), the minimum threshold range and minimum time thresholdwindow values may be chosen based on marketing data, regional data, etc.

In some embodiments, as previously discussed, the minimum thresholdrange may be the same as a maximum detection range between communicationdevice 104 and one or more of communication devices 103.1-103.N., suchas NFC embodiments, for example. In other embodiments, such as BLEand/or iBeacon embodiments, for example, the minimum threshold range maybe based on a distance that is less than the maximum communicationsrange between communication device 104 and one or more of communicationdevices 103.1-103.N.

Graph 300 represents a range measurement on the y-axis and a timemeasurement on the x-axis. The specific units are irrelevant, but graph300 could represent typical units such as range in feet and time inseconds, for example. Graph 300 illustrates a relationship between rangeand time for three example interaction scenarios 302, 304, and 306. Inexample scenario 302, graph 300 shows that communication device 104 anda communication device 103 were never within the minimum threshold rangeof one another, although they were within a greater range of one anotherthan the minimum threshold range for a duration that exceeded theminimum time threshold window. Furthermore, the opposite conditions aretrue for example scenario 304, in which communication device 104 and acommunication device 103 were within the minimum threshold range of oneanother but not for a duration of time exceeding the minimum timethreshold window. Finally, example scenario 306 satisfies bothconditions. As a result, in an embodiment, if a customer visited a storeand interacted with three store employees represented as examplescenarios 302, 304, and 306, only the interaction with the storeemployee corresponding to example scenario 306 would be deemed as aninteraction. In such a case, example scenario 306 would result incommunication device 104 logging additional details associated withexample scenario 306, such as a timestamp of the scenario, an employeeidentification number, the duration of the interaction, a storeidentifier, etc.

FIG. 4A illustrates an image of an exemplary communication device screen400, according to an embodiment. As previously discussed with referenceto FIG. 2, in accordance with an embodiment, a communication device thathas installed the feedback application is configured to detect and/orreceive one or more trigger conditions when the customer leaves thestore and/or purchases an item in the store. Communication device screen400 is an example of a notification prompt that may be displayed at acommunication device that has detected and/or received a triggercondition indicating that a customer has purchased an item at the storeand/or left the vicinity of the store. In an embodiment, communicationdevice screen 400 is an example of a notification screen that may bedisplayed on a suitable display device (e.g., display 212) implementedby communication device 104 and/or communication device 200, forexample, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively. In accordance with anembodiment, a customer may cancel the entry of feedback by selecting anappropriate “cancel” button accordingly. A cancel button is not shown inFIG. 4A for purposes of brevity.

As shown in FIG. 4A, communication device screen 400 may include severalportions, such as feedback notification portion 402, feedback ratingportion 404, text entry portion 406, and submit portion 408. AlthoughFIG. 4A illustrates the various portions being arranged at variousportions of communication device screen 400, various embodiments includefeedback notification portion 402, feedback rating portion 404, textentry portion 406, and/or submit portion 408 having any suitable shape,design, and/or being displayed at any suitable location withincommunication device screen 400 relative to one another to facilitatesoliciting feedback from a customer.

As shown in FIG. 4A, feedback notification portion 402 may include aprompt asking the customer how his shopping experience was at the store.Rating portion 404 may include any suitable rating that may berepresented as, or reduced to, an equivalent numerical value, such as astar rating system, a sliding scale of numeric numbers, a gradingsystem, etc. Rating portion 404 may enable a customer to select adesired rating via an appropriate interaction with the display (e.g., bytapping or touching the appropriate rating desired). Text portion 406may enable a customer to enter comments or other textual descriptionsrelated to the shopping experience. For example, a customer may utilizean appropriate user interface (e.g., user interface 210) to type thedesired text. Submit portion 408 may allow a customer to submit thefeedback information to another device, such as external computingdevice 112, for example, as shown in FIG. 1.

In an embodiment, the feedback data included in rating portion 404, thetext included in text portion 406, and any other information that mayhave been logged during the customers shopping experience such asidentified interactions and their corresponding employee identificationnumbers, interaction durations, etc., may be sent another device uponthe customer selecting (e.g., by tapping and/or touching) submit portion408.

FIG. 4B illustrates an image of an application screen, according to anembodiment. Using the previous example discussed with reference to FIG.4A, the customer is asked how her experience was shopping today, and isprovided a star rating portion as well as a comment portion to providethe desired feedback. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 4B, once thecustomer provides the desired feedback by selecting the appropriatenumber of stars and/or typing comments or suggestions, the customer mayselect the “submit” box with an appropriate gesture and this informationsubmitted to another device, such as external computing device 112, forexample, as shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4C illustrates an exemplary communication device screen 450,according to an embodiment. As previously discussed with reference toFIG. 1, a communication device that has installed the feedbackapplication may be configured to detect when the customer has completedhis shopping visit to a particular store, which may result in a feedbacknotification 452 being displayed to the user. In some embodiments,notification 452 may be displayed in the foreground as opposed to thebackground to notify the customer that the application has detected thathe has finished shopping at the store. Shortly after notification 452 isdisplayed (e.g., one or two seconds later), embodiments include afeedback notification prompt 454 being displayed together, orseparately, from the notification 452.

FIG. 4D illustrates an image of an exemplary communication deviceapplication screen, according to an embodiment. Using the previousexample discussed with reference to FIG. 4C, the customer is asked howher experience was shopping today, and is provided a prompt to give acondensed version of feedback rating compared to the full feedback shownin FIGS. 4A- and 4B, for example.

For example, feedback notification prompt 454 may include a simplebinary question regarding whether the customer's experience was “great”or “bad.” Again, as will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill inthe relevant art(s), any text and/or prompt layout may be utilized tofacilitate the collection of this abbreviated form of customer feedback.For example, feedback notification prompt 454 may include the 5 stars asshown in FIG. 4B without the text portion, thereby allowing the customerto quickly select a star number that is submitted once selected by theuser. To provide another example, feedback notification prompt 454 mayinclude three options such as “good,” average” and “bad,” etc. Invarious embodiments, the selection of the appropriate feedback choice bythe customer results in the submitted feedback being sent to anotherdevice, such as external computing device 112, for example, aspreviously discussed with respect to FIG. 1.

In some embodiments, this abbreviated feedback may be used to generatespecific reports separate from reports generated from the full versionof feedback gathered, for example, using the method previously discussedwith reference to FIGS. 4A-B. In other embodiments, a numeric value maybe assigned to the abbreviated feedback to incorporate this feedbackwith the full version of feedback that may also be collected by anexternal device. For example, a feedback rating of “good” may beassociated with the same value as a four-star rating, using the previousexample in FIG. 2B, whereas a “bad” feedback rating may be associatedwith a two-star rating.

The following discussion of exemplary reports with reference to FIGS.5-8 refers to store employee ranks among individual stores based onaveraged customer feedback ratings. In accordance with variousembodiments, an employee's ranking among other store employees may bedetermined from a combination of a number of reviews and the ratingsobtained for each of the customer reviews. For example, an externalcomputing device, such as external computing device 112, for example, asshown in FIG. 1, may assign a numeric value to each star and averagethese numbers from each customer review to determine an average feedbackrating value for each employee. Then, external computing device 112 mayrank store employees with the same average feedback rating higher thanother store employees with a lesser number of customer reviews to rankeach store employee in the store accordingly.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary report 500, according to an embodiment.In an embodiment, report 500 may be generated by an external computingdevice, such as external computing device 112, for example, as shown inFIG. 1. In various embodiments, report 500 may be displayed on anysuitable computing device, such as a tablet computer, a personalcomputer, a smartphone, etc. In various embodiments, external computingdevice 112 may be configured to format the data included in report 500such that a corresponding suitable computing device may open and displaythe report in accordance with a respective application and/or program.As will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the relevantart(s), the layout and graphical representation of report 500 is forillustrative purposes, and may utilize any suitable design or layout toprovide employee feedback data without departing from the spirit andscope of the present disclosure.

As previously discussed, external computing device 112 may receivefeedback data from a customer along with any comments the customer mayprovide about her experience at a particular store. Over time, externalcomputing device 112 may receive feedback from several employees overseveral stores from multiple customers. In various embodiments, externalcomputing device 112 may be configured to separate this feedback data ona per-store employee basis. As shown in FIG. 5, example report 500includes feedback data for store employee “Daniel A.,” and mayadditionally include employee information associated with this storeemployee in portion 502, such as a profile picture, a job title, theemployee's store (e.g., store #1401), how long the store employee hasworked at a particular store (e.g., 9 years), etc.

In various embodiments, report 500 may include feedback data and/orrankings determined from averaged feedback data received from one ormore customers that interacted with Daniel A. over various periods oftime. As shown in portion 504, report 500 indicates feedback dataaveraged over the past week from 310 customer reviews of 3.5 stars, eachof which had interacted with Daniel A. Furthermore, portion 504 alsoindicates that customer feedback data averaged over 1401 customerreviews in the past year was 4.5 stars, and the customer feedback dataaveraged over the entirety of all 7812 customer reviews is 4 stars.

Because external computing device 112 may receive customer feedback datafrom multiple store employees and/or multiple stores in a retail chain,various embodiments include external device 112 ranking each storeemployee according to their respective average feedback data scores.These rankings may be based on average customer feedback data from anysuitable time period, such as the past week, month, year, all time, etc.As shown in report 500, Daniel A. ranks second out of 26 employees atstore #1401, which again, could be based on average customer feedbackscores from the past week, year, all time, etc.

In various embodiments, portion 506 of report 500 may include a listingof the customer feedback ratings and/or any comments entered by eachcustomer that interacted with Daniel A. As will be appreciated by thoseof ordinary skill in the relevant art(s), the customer feedback datapresented in portion 506 may be displayed using any suitableorganization, such as the most recent feedback first, the most positivefeedback first, etc. The customer feedback presented in portion 506 mayalso be filtered in accordance with various embodiments such that onlycustomer feedback in the last day, week, month, etc. is displayed inreport 500.

Because report 500 includes both a rating and comments linked tospecific employee interactions with customers, report 500 may beutilized as a valuable tool by store management. For example, a storemanager or other higher-level store employee may review report 500 foreach employee at the store to determine customer feedback trends orreoccurring issues. Based on the customer feedback ratings and/orcomments, store management may determine whether additionalintervention, supervision, and/or disciplinary measures are required.Furthermore, the customer feedback ratings may include informationregarding other store functions, particularly those pertaining to thestore employee. Therefore, report 500 may provide management withinsight as to how various parts of a store are functioning, such aswhether items are being restocked, if the store is being adequatelycleaned, whether store employees have good customer service skills, etc.

In various embodiments, employee ratings may be used to incentivizestore employees. Since the store employee's feedback rating may beautomatically calculated based on gathered customer feedback informationwithout user interaction, additional automated tasks may be linked tothese ratings. Embodiments include a spot bonus award system beingimplemented that provides an automated spot bonus to an employee whenthe employee's feedback rating exceeds a set threshold. To provide anillustrative example, an store employee could be awarded a spot bonusevery month when the previous month average customer feedback ratingmeets or exceeds 4 out of 5 stars, or a tiered spot bonus system basedon increasing levels of feedback ratings. In an embodiment, externalcomputing system 112 may be configured to communicate with one or morepayroll systems to provide an accounting computing system customerfeedback ratings for one or more store employees, thus facilitatingdisbursement of spot bonuses with little or no user intervention.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary report 600, according to an embodiment.In various embodiments, report 600 may be displayed on any suitablecomputing device, such as a tablet computer, a personal computer, asmartphone, etc. In various embodiments, an external computing devicereceiving feedback data from customers, such as external computingdevice 112, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, may generate various typesof reports targeted to various levels of stores employees and/ormanagement. As will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in therelevant art(s), the layout and graphical representation of report 600is for illustrative purposes, and may utilize any suitable design orlayout to provide employee feedback data without departing from thespirit and scope of the present disclosure.

Report 600 is an example of a report that may be targeted towards astore employee as opposed to a store manager. Similar to report 500,report 600 also includes information regarding the employee, his title,experience, and picture, as shown in portion 602 of report 600. However,report 600 also includes the customer feedback averaged over the lastweek for the employee to review in portion 602, and may also include atrend indication based on whether the most recent week of customerfeedback was better or worse than ratings in the prior week, asindicated by downward arrow 601.

In addition, report 600 may include a portion 604 that includes feedbackratings based on other customer feedback averaging periods, such as arunning year-to-date rating, a prior week rating, a prior month rating,etc. Furthermore, report 600 may include other rankings that may beimportant to an individual store employee, such as the store employeescurrent ranking compared to other employees in the store, a regionalranking comparing an average store rating among several stores in aregional market, etc.

In various embodiments, report 600 may include a portion 606 thatseparates comments from positive and negative customer feedback. Forexample, positive feedback may be pulled from several customer feedbackcomments associated with a star rating of 5, while negative feedback maybe pulled from several customer feedback comments associated with a starrating of 1. To provide another example, the positive and negativefeedback comments may be randomly pulled from several customer feedbackcomments associated with star ratings greater than and less than 2.5stars, respectively, using the example 5-star rating system usedthroughout he disclosure.

In various embodiments, external computing device 112 may send report600 to individual store employees via a work and/or personal email. Aswill be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art, informationin portions 602, 604, and/or 606 may be condensed and/or modified basedon the recipient of report 600 and/or the method of delivery of report600. For example, report 600 may present each store employee with asimple and short summary of their current customer feedback submissionsfrom various interactions with customers, such as only displaying two orthree positive and negative reviews in an emailed report 600 sent to thestore employee. On the other hand, a store manager may view report 600on a workstation at the store to see all customer feedback for a givenfeedback averaging period.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary report 700, according to an embodiment.Again, external computing device 112 may receive customer feedback frommultiple store employees over multiple store locations. As will beappreciated by those of ordinary skill in the relevant art(s), thelayout and graphical representation of report 700 is for illustrativepurposes, and may utilize any suitable design or layout to provideemployee feedback data without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe present disclosure. In accordance with various embodiments, externalcomputing device 112 may separate store employee feedback data accordingto each individual store. As shown in report 700, each store employeeDaniel A, John T., and Brian D. are store employees at store #1401. Eachindividual store employee report may be similar or identical to report500. However, various embodiments include external computing device 112generating report 700 by aggregating and displaying feedback data forseveral (or all) store employees within a particular store. In this way,a store manager or other higher-level store employee may quickly comparethe customer feedback ratings of each store employee, and see whichstore employees are doing better than others at a quick glance.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary report 800, according to an embodiment.Again, external computing device 112 may receive customer feedback frommultiple store employees over multiple store locations for a given chainof stores. In accordance with various embodiments, external computingdevice 112 may combine averaged customer feedback for individualemployees as well as customer feedback averaged over multiple stores orregions to provide insight regarding how stores within a region and/orchain rank compared to one another.

For example, report 800 includes portions 802, 804, and 806. Portion 802may identify a particular store for which the feedback information isbeing presented. Portion 806 may identify one or more employees andtheir respective average customer feedback ratings over some period oftime, such as the last week, for example, as illustrated in FIG. 8.

In addition, portion 804 may include information that ranks storeregions or entire chains of stores based on an aggregation of averagedstore employee feedback ratings. For example, by averaging the storeemployees at a particular store, such as store #1401, for example,external computing device 112 may determine a numeric value, such as avalue from 1 to 5, for example, based on the star rating example usedthroughout the disclosure. External computing device 112 may repeat thisprocess for multiple stores, and then average these numeric values overa specified region, such as a market region or the entire chain ofstores, for example. Portion 804 provides an illustration of an exampleof displaying regional and chain-wide store rankings in this way. In theexample shown in FIG. 8, the comparison between store #1401 and otherstores in its same region and the entire chain of stores is made usingaveraged customer feedback for employees in the past week as well as theyear to date. In various embodiments, these rankings may be calculatedfor any suitable time period. As was previously discussed with referenceto employee rankings, external computing device 112 may also utilize acombination of total number of customer reviews as well as averagecustomer feedback ratings to rank stores within any suitable specifiedgroup of stores, such as stores within the same region, stores withinthe entire chain, etc.

In this way, embodiments include generating reports to provideinformation that is useful to different levels of management within achain, such as shift managers, store managers, regional managers, vicepresidents of chains, etc. Since embodiments include external computingdevice 112 aggregating averaged feedback data having varyinggranularities, each level of management may select an appropriate reportto view that best suits their management interests and goals.

As will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the relevantart(s), the reports shown in FIGS. 5-8 may be tailored and/or customizedbased on the target viewer. For example, a report may be generated for amarket vice president including only stores that the market vicepresident manages, only top ranking employees from several stores, etc.

FIG. 9 illustrates a method flow 900, according to an embodiment. In anembodiment, method 900 may be implemented by any suitable device, suchas communication device 104 and/or communication device 200, forexample, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively. In an embodiment,method 900 may be performed by one or more processors, applications,and/or routines, such as any suitable portion of CPU 202 and/or GPU 204,which may perform method 900 executing instructions, algorithms,routines, and/or code in conjunction with feedback application module208, for example, as shown in FIG. 2.

Method 900 starts when a feedback application is launched by one or moreprocessors (block 902), which may be part of a first communicationdevice. This application could include, for example, an applicationexecuted by CPU 202 and/or GPU 204 reading instructions stored inapplication module 208, for example, as shown in FIG. 2. In anembodiment, the application may be started without user intervention andmay run as one or more background processes of a communication device,such as a smartphone, for example. As previously discussed withreference to FIGS. 1 and 2, the application may be launched upon acommunication device detecting its proximity to a particular store.

Once the feedback application has been launched and is running (block902) method 900 includes one or more processors continuing to listen forincoming beacons transmitted from other communication devices (block904). This functionality may be supported, for example, by one or moreprocessors working in conjunction with one or more communication units.For example, CPU 202 and/or GPU 204 may communicate with communicationunit 214, as shown in FIG. 2, to receive and/or process informationtransmitted from one or more communication devices, such ascommunication devices 103.1-103.N.

Method 900 includes one or more processors determining whether aninteraction between the first communication device and a secondcommunication device has occurred (block 906). The one or moreprocessors could include, for example, CPU 202 and/or GPU 204determining whether communication device 200 (which may be an embodimentof communication device 104) has interacted with one or morecommunication devices 103.1-103.N. Again, this determination may be madeby CPU 202 and/or GPU 204 determining whether interactions have occurredbased on whether conditions have been met, such as communication device104 and any of communication devices 103.1-103.N being within athreshold range of one another for a threshold duration, for example, aspreviously discussed with reference to FIG. 3. If the one or moreprocessors determine that an interaction has occurred, then method 906continues (block 908). Otherwise, method 900 reverts back to continuelistening for incoming beacons (block 904) and determining whetherinteractions have occurred based on transmission parameters included inthe received beacons (block 906).

Method 900 includes one or more processors logging details of theinteraction, such as an employee ID associated with the interaction, theduration of the interaction, the distance between the customer andemployee during the interaction, a store identification number, etc.(block 908). This logging could be made, for example, by CPU 202 and/orGPU 204 storing data transmitted over the beacon that is processed bycommunication unit 214 and stored in memory 206, for example, as shownin FIG. 2.

Method 900 includes one or more processors determining whether a triggerevent has occurred indicating the customer has finished shopping (block910). In some embodiments, this determination may be made at thecommunication device that has received the beacons and determinedwhether one or more interactions have occurred between the customer andone or more store employees, such as communication device 104, forexample, as shown in FIG. 1 (block 910).

Examples of the communication device determining the trigger event mayinclude one or more processors detecting rapid changes in the red valuein the RGB spectrum in conjunction with a camera unit. This couldinclude, for example, CPU 202 and/or GPU 204 determining thatcommunication device has been scanned by a laser barcode scannerdisplayed as part of a loyalty rewards program via communications withcamera unit 216, for example, as previously discussed in reference tocommunication devices 104 and 200, for example, as shown in FIGS. 1 and2, respectively.

In other embodiments, the determination of whether a trigger event hasoccurred may be made by another device (block 910). For example,external computing device 112 may determine that communication device104 has left the vicinity of the store, with or without purchasing anitem. As previously discussed with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, externalcomputing device 112 may make such a determination based on any suitabletechniques, such as comparing a location received from communicationdevice 104 to a geofence, utilizing information associated with otherbeacon device transmissions received from communication device 104, etc.If a trigger event is detected (block 910) then method 900 continues(block 912). Otherwise, method 900 reverts back to continue listeningfor incoming beacons (block 904), determining whether interactions haveoccurred based on transmission parameters included in the receivedbeacons (block 906), and logging relevant information when interactionshave occurred (block 908). In this way, embodiments of method 900include storing interactions between the customer and several employeesduring the customer's shopping experience until a trigger event isreceived and/or detected (block 910).

Method 900 includes one or more processors displaying a promptsoliciting feedback from the customer (block 912). In an embodiment, theone or more processors may include CPU 202 and/or GPU 204, for example,as shown in FIG. 2. In an embodiment, the prompt may be similar to theprompts as shown in FIGS. 4A-4B, for example, which may be displayed onpart of a suitable communication device.

Method 900 includes one or more processors sending the feedback and/orother information to another device (block 914). In an embodiment, theone or more processors may include CPU 202 and/or GPU 204, for example,as shown in FIG. 2. In an embodiment, the feedback and/or otherinformation may include information logged by the one or more processors(block 908) and/or information entered by the customer in response tothe displayed feedback prompt (block 912). In an embodiment, thefeedback and/or other information may be sent from one communicationdevice to another communication device, such as from communicationdevice 104 to external computing device 112, for example, as shown inFIG. 1.

FIG. 10 illustrates a method flow 1000, according to an embodiment. Inan embodiment, method 1000 may be implemented by any suitable device,such as external computing device 112, for example, as shown in FIG. 1.In an embodiment, method 1000 may be performed by one or moreprocessors, applications, and/or routines, such as any suitable portionof CPU 202 and/or GPU 204, which may perform method 1000 executinginstructions, algorithms, routines, and/or code in conjunction withfeedback application module 208, for example, as shown in FIG. 2.

Method 1000 may include one or more processors determining whether atrigger event has occurred indicating the customer has finished shopping(block 1002). In various embodiments, the determination may be based ona location of another communication device associated with the customer,such as communication device 104, for example, as shown in FIG. 1. Inaccordance with such embodiment, the one or more processors maydetermine that the customer's communication device has left the vicinityof the store, with or without purchasing an item. Again, externalcomputing device 112 may make this determination based on any suitabletechniques, such as comparing a location received from communicationdevice 104 to a geofence, utilizing information associated with otherbeacon device transmissions received from communication device 104, etc.

Method 1000 may include one or more processors sending a pushnotification to another communication device (block 1004). In variousembodiments, the push notification may be sent from an externalcommunication device to the communication device associated with thecustomer. For example, the push notification may be generated atexternal computing device 112 and sent to communication device 104, asshown in FIG. 1.

Method 1000 may include one or more processors receiving feedbackinformation and/or other data logged by the customer's communicationdevice (block 1006). In various embodiment, this feedback informationmay be entered by the customer in response to a feedback notificationthat is displayed when the push notification sent from externalcomputing device 112 (block 1004) is received at the customer'scommunication device, such as communication device 104, for example, asshown in FIG. 1. For example, the feedback data and/or other loggedinformation may include data previously described in method 900 (block914), as shown in FIG. 9.

Method 1000 may include one or more processors generating and/or storingone or more reports (block 1008) based on the feedback received from thecustomer's communications device (block 1006). For example, the reportsmay correspond to the reports previously discussed with reference toFIGS. 5-8. In various embodiments, the reports generated (block 1008)may include an aggregation of averaged feedback ratings from severalcustomers over several retail stores in a chain. Thus, embodimentsinclude method 1000 generating reports (block 1008) having individualstore employee feedback, store employee feedback averaged over a singlestore, several averaged stores within a region and/or chain, etc.

Method 1000 may include one or more processors sending the reports toanother device (block 1010). In some embodiments, the reports may besent from the device that generated the reports, such as externalcomputing device 112, for example, as showing in FIG. 1. For example,external computing device 112 may send reports as part of an emailand/or email attachment to store employees directly, to store managers,to regional managers, etc.

In other embodiments, method 1010 does not send the reports to anotherdevice (block 1010 is omitted), but other devices may access the reportsstored on external computing device 112. For example, in accordance withsuch embodiments, method 1000 may include external device 112 storingone or more generated reports (block 1008) and allowing another device,such as an employee workstation computer, an accounting system computer,etc., access to the generated reports. In this way, external computingdevice 112 may act as a repository for generated reports (block 1008).

Although the foregoing text sets forth a detailed description ofnumerous different embodiments, it should be understood that thedetailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does notdescribe every possible embodiment because describing every possibleembodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. In light of theforegoing text, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize thatnumerous alternative embodiments could be implemented, using eithercurrent technology or technology developed after the filing date of thispatent application.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: logging, by a mobilecomputing device, responsive to the mobile computing device identifyingan interaction occurring in a vicinity of a physical store locationbetween a customer who is associated with the mobile computing deviceand a store employee who is associated with a first wirelesscommunication device by detecting when the mobile computing device iswithin a threshold range of the first wireless communication device fora threshold period of time, an employee identification numberidentifying the store employee transmitted from the first wirelesscommunication device to the mobile computing device during theinteraction; detecting, by the mobile computing device, that thecustomer has left the vicinity of the physical store location;generating, by the mobile computing device, in response to theidentified interaction between the customer and the store employee andthe customer leaving the vicinity of the physical store location, afeedback prompt soliciting employee feedback; receiving, by the mobilecomputing device, feedback regarding the identified store employeeentered by the customer in response to the feedback prompt; andtransmitting, by the mobile computing device, the feedback entered bythe customer.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of identifyingthe interaction between the customer and the store employee comprises:determining a power level of a signal transmitted by the first wirelesscommunication device in accordance with a personal area network (PAN)communication protocol; and tracking the power level of the signal toverify that the power level of the signal does not fall below athreshold power level during the threshold period of time.
 3. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: upon detecting that the customer hasentered the vicinity of the physical store location, executing abackground application installed on the mobile computing device tolisten for first transmission parameters transmitted from the firstwireless communication device.
 4. The method of claim 3, furthercomprising: detecting that the customer has entered the vicinity of thephysical store location based upon a comparison of a geographic locationof the mobile computing device to a geofenced area that is associatedwith the physical store location.
 5. The method of claim 3, furthercomprising: detecting that the customer has entered the vicinity of thephysical store location using information received as part of secondtransmission parameters transmitted by a second wireless computingdevice that uniquely identify the physical store location.
 6. The methodof claim 5, wherein the third second transmission parameters aretransmitted by the second wireless computing device and received by themobile computing device in accordance with a personal area network (PAN)communication protocol.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the feedbackentered by the customer includes one or more of: a numeric feedbackrating; and text.
 8. A mobile computing device, comprising: one or moreprocessors configured to: log, responsive to identifying an interactionoccurring in a vicinity of a physical store location between a customerwho is associated with the mobile computing device and a store employeewho is associated with a first wireless communication device bydetecting when the mobile computing device is within a threshold rangeof the first wireless communication device for a threshold period oftime, an employee identification number identifying the store employeetransmitted from the first wireless communication device to the mobilecomputing device during the interaction; detect that the customer hasleft the vicinity of the physical store location; and generate, inresponse to the identified interaction between the customer and thestore employee and the customer leaving the vicinity of the physicalstore location, a feedback prompt soliciting employee feedback; a userinterface configured to receive feedback regarding the identified storeemployee entered by the customer in response to the feedback prompt; anda communication unit configured to transmit the feedback entered by thecustomer.
 9. The mobile computing device of claim 8, wherein the one ormore processors are further configured to identify the interactionbetween the customer and the store employee by determining a power levelof a signal transmitted by the first wireless communication device inaccordance with a personal area network (PAN) communication protocol,and tracking the power level of the signal to verify that the powerlevel of the signal does not fall below a threshold power level duringthe threshold period of time.
 10. The mobile computing device of claim8, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to, upondetecting that the customer has entered the vicinity of the physicalstore location, execute a background application installed on the mobilecomputing device to listen for first transmission parameters transmittedfrom the first wireless communication device.
 11. The mobile computingdevice of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors are furtherconfigured to detect that the customer has entered the vicinity of thephysical store based upon a comparison of a geographic location of themobile computing device to a geofenced area that is associated with thephysical store location.
 12. The mobile computing device of claim 10,wherein the one or more processors are further configured to detect thatthe customer has entered the vicinity of the physical store locationusing information received as part of second transmission parameterstransmitted by a second wireless computing device that uniquely identifythe physical store location.
 13. The mobile computing device of claim12, wherein the communication unit is further configured to receive thesecond transmission parameters transmitted by the second wirelesscomputing device in accordance with a personal area network (PAN)communication protocol.
 14. The mobile computing device of claim 8,wherein the feedback entered by the customer includes one or more of: anumeric feedback rating; and text.
 15. A system, comprising: a firstwireless communication device associated with a store employee; and amobile computing device, associated with a customer, configured to: log,responsive to the mobile computing device identifying an interactionoccurring in a vicinity of a physical store location between thecustomer and the store employee by detecting when the mobile computingdevice is within a threshold range of the first wireless communicationdevice for a threshold period of time, an employee identification numberidentifying the store employee transmitted from the first wirelesscommunication device to the mobile computing device during theinteraction; detect that the customer has left a vicinity of thephysical store location; generate, in response to the identifiedinteraction between the customer and the store employee and the customerleaving the vicinity of the physical store location, a feedback promptsoliciting employee feedback; receive feedback regarding the identifiedstore employee entered by the customer in response to the feedbackprompt being displayed by the mobile computing device; and transmit thefeedback entered by the customer.
 16. The system of claim 15, whereinthe mobile computing device is further configured to identify theinteraction between the customer and the store employee by determining apower level of a signal transmitted by the first wireless communicationdevice in accordance with a personal area network (PAN) communicationprotocol, and tracking the power level of the signal to verify that thepower level of the signal does not fall below a threshold power levelduring the threshold period of time.
 17. The system of claim 15, whereinthe mobile computing device is further configured to, upon detectingthat the customer has entered the vicinity of the physical storelocation, execute a background application installed on the mobilecomputing device to listen for first transmission parameters transmittedfrom the first wireless communication device.
 18. The system of claim17, wherein the mobile computing device is further configured to detectthat the customer has entered the vicinity of the physical store basedupon a comparison of a geographic location of the mobile computingdevice to a geofenced area that is associated with the physical storelocation.
 19. The system of claim 17, wherein the mobile computingdevice is further configured to detect that the customer has entered thevicinity of the physical store location using information received aspart of second transmission parameters transmitted by a second wirelesscomputing device that uniquely identify the physical store location. 20.The system of claim 19, wherein the mobile computing device is furtherconfigured to receive the second transmission parameters transmitted bythe second wireless computing device in accordance with a personal areanetwork (PAN) communication protocol.